Although this is the third Iron Man movie, the character was featured in the recent film, “The Avengers.”
In that movie, Iron Man Tony Stark (played by Robert Downey Jr.) was almost killed. In the beginning of the movie, Stark suffers from anxiety attacks because of his near-death experience.

The evil villain the Mandarin (Ben Kingsley), declares war on America and sets off a series of attacks around the country.

The near-death of one of Stark’s employees during one of these attacks, brings Stark out of his stupor. He challenges Mandarin to come to his turf and try to destroy him.

The Mandarin sends his helicopters to destroy Stark’s mansion, which is done in a violent attack with missiles. Stark escapes the attack by flying in his Iron Man suit to a safe place in Tennessee, but the long journey from California to Tennessee uses up all of the suit’s power and he must find a way to recharge it.

He encounters the help of a young boy Harley (Ty Simpkins), who has the unique ability to reconfigure the suit.
In the meantime, Stark decides to set out alone to find the Mandarin. He uses his wit and abilities to find the villain’s mansion.

His mission is to rescue his girlfriend Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow), and to prevent the Mandarin from destroying America.

Overall, the movie is a bit disappointing because the plot and the characters are so similar to the first two versions of “Iron Man,” in terms of new special effects and unusual villains.

But the movie did stay true to comic style fights and action scenes. Plus some disabled veterans were given extreme physical abilities, which was really neat.

The movie has many subplots and rapidly jumps from one scene to another, which makes it hard to follow.

The end leaves you wondering whether the Iron Man will be included in any future “Avenger” sequels.

Shane Black directed this movie. It is rated PG-13 and contains many violent scenes.